Jace slammed his fist on the table, the noise blending into the loud music. “You call her that one more time and I swear to God . . .”
Diana flipped the photo to the side, cutting off Jace’s threat and revealing another picture beneath. He and Evan at Christmas back when she was still living with his family.
Shit. Diana knew.
Another flip. A black-and-white photo of a teenage Evan standing by a window. Jace frowned. He didn’t recognize the location, but Evan looked the same as when she’d run away, her hair just a little longer. His gaze tracked down the picture and froze. Evan’s waistline was rounded, peeking out of the bottom of her T-shirt.
He went cold all over.
Diana smiled. “Guess my PI is better than yours. Did you know your little girlfriend was investigated for a pornography ring? They have a whole file on her. Apparently, she learned her photography skills in a not-so-traditional way.” She tapped the picture. “And, huh, wonder where that baby ended up?”
Jace barely heard what Diana was saying. The sounds and lights of the bar swirled around him in a haze as things crashed together in his mind. “Why are you doing this?”
She leaned forward on the table, hawk-eyeing him. “The website gave me fifty thousand for that first picture. Imagine what they would give me for these.”
No. No way would he let Evan be exposed like that. She’d lose everything.
He pressed his fingers against his temples. “Tell me what you want.”
She leaned back, the face he once thought of as pretty looking like a twisted nightmare. “Five hundred thousand dollars. You give me that, I give you all the information I have. And I’ll relieve you of alimony.”
He stared at her in disbelief. “Half a million? You’re out of your damn mind, woman. I don’t have that kind of money lying around.”
“But your daddy does.”
His stomach turned, the implication of her words crawling through him like a deadly virus.
She didn’t just want money.
She wanted to destroy him. To make him grovel before his father and lose the business he worked so hard to build.
To win.
And with Evan’s reputation on the line, he was going to let her.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Andre crossed his arms and sighed heavily as he leaned back against the bar. “How much has he had?”
Eddie, the bartender, checked the tab. “Enough. His ex stopped by, and he switched from beer to whiskey after she left. I was going to call a cab, but figured I’d try you first.”
Andre nodded, watching Jace from across the busy dance floor. Jace lifted his glass and swigged from it, his throat working as he downed it. Andre shook his head. Whiskey. Not a good sign. Jace wasn’t a big drinker, so anything besides beer meant he was chasing demons.
Andre swiped a hand across his face. He’d hoped to not have to talk to Jace for a while. To give them both some space. Telling him how he felt had been a world-class mistake, and seeing Jace completely shut down around him afterward had damn near killed him. In one swing, Andre had knocked out his chance for more with Jace and irrevocably wounded a longtime friendship. Wham. Done.
But when Eddie had called him, Andre couldn’t bring himself to turn his back and send Jace home in a cab. So here he was. Like some asshole who didn’t know when to quit.
Andre pushed his way through the throng on the dance floor and slid into the booth. Jace lifted his gaze from his empty glass and winced when he saw it was Andre.
Perfect. He was cringe-worthy now.
Andre cleared his throat. “Look, I get that I’m not who you want to talk to right now, so you don’t have to say anything. But it’s time to get out of here. Eddie’s cutting you off and sending you home.”
“She had a kid,” Jace said, his words slurring together.
Andre frowned. Great. Drunk and babbling nonsense. Fun times. “Who? Diana?”
Jace shook his head, a slow move that seemed to take all his effort. “No. She had a kid. My kid.”